James – Electrical Contractor
I met with Des of Elliot Johnson after a period of rapid growth that had seen my business go from one employee to a team of 14 people turning over in excess of £1 million a year. Despite this, I had fallen behind with payments to creditors and HMRC.
Des first conducted a review of my business, where he identified that my management and control mechanisms were simply not strong enough; this meant that contract extras and man hours were not being invoiced properly. On top of this, the rapid growth of we’d experienced had depleted our cash flow and reserves.
As the business was unincorporated Des guided me through the process of entering an IVA, which allowed me to trade successfully for another year.
Unfortunately, a mistake by our accountants meant that my business accrued further debt with HMRC and the IVA was failed. The pressures of the resulting months meant that we began to lose clients and ultimately return to the crisis we faced before.
Two family members, who also worked for the business, decided to take it on as a going concern. I sold the business to their limited company, and voluntarily declared bankruptcy to sort out all of my personal debt.
Des assisted my family members in setting up their limited company, and in structuring it to avoid the problems that I had faced. He also helped me with the presentation of my bankruptcy petition, and with the details of my bankruptcy. This included negotiating a sale of my equity in the family home to my wife, which meant we did not lose our house.
I worked for the new business, and in 18 months I won a promotion and received an equity stake.
The business now turns over £1 million a year and employs 17 people. Without Des, this may not have happened and the entire insolvency process could have had disastrous consequences for me and my family.
